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Israel’s armed forces committed actions amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during the recent Gaza conflict, says a UN report. It documents deliberate attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities.

The report, which was compiled by an independent fact finding mission, also concludes indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian armed groups into Southern Israel would constitute war crimes, and may amount to crimes against humanity.

The mission found that the military operation by Israel from 27 December to 18 January, 2009, “was a deliberate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said, “Israel did not feel able to cooperate with the fact finding mission because its mandate was clearly one sided.”